Yiddish and Social Science at the YIVO Economic-Statistical Section, 1926–1939

Abstract

The Yiddish Scientific Institute, known by its Yiddish acronym YIVO, was funded in Vilna in 1925. The institute had four sections: Philology, History, Psychology-Pedagogy, and Economics-Statistics. Its principal goal was not only to produce scholarship concerning Eastern European Jewish populations but also to promote Yiddish as a scientific language. This article analyzes the tensions associated with using Yiddish in academia generally and in social science particularly. It demonstrates how this linguistic commitment to Yiddish led to certain compromises dictated by the need to share academic research, expand readership, and secure financial support. It aims to explore these linguistic matters by focusing on the activities and scholarly production of the Economic-Statistical section—the “ekstat” section—from its first meeting in 1926 to 1939. This section offers a particularly relevant case study because of its highly specific situation within YIVO. Located in Berlin and then in Warsaw, the Economic-Statistical section was relatively autonomous from the central headquarters in Vilna. More importantly, the section had closer ties to German academia, which explains its greater openness toward foreign (non-Yiddish) languages. Drawing upon sources including published materials, the administrative records of YIVO, and the personal archives of the section’s key members, I document the ways in which this linguistic commitment toward Yiddish informed both the scholarly output of the section and its day-to-day activities.